VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT Issued on: 10 August 2011
ORGANIZATIONAL LOCATION: UN-HABITAT FUNCTIONAL TITLE: Consultant: Baseline Survey and Development of Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (M,E&R) Framework of Focus Area 4 of the UN-HABITAT Medium-Term Strategic and Institutional Plan (MTSIP) POST DURATION 3.5 Months over 5 Months CLOSING DATE: 22 August 2011
Background
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.
UN-HABITAT is in the process of implementing a 6-year Medium Term Strategic and Institutional Plan (MTSIP), 2008–2013. The strategic goal of MTSIP is to support governments and their development partners to achieve more sustainable urbanization. Its aim is to promote policy and institutional reform and impact at scale. The Governing Council (GC) of UN-Habitat at its 21st session in April 2007, in its resolution 21/2, approved the MTSIP and its focus areas, and further requested the Executive Director to report to the Committee of Permanent Representatives on a regular basis on MTSIP progress. The Secretariat developed results framework of the MTSIP in accordance with the GC resolution 21/2, paragraph 3, which requested MTSIP to be refined. The results framework articulates strategic results, expected accomplishments and indicators of achievement for each focus area up to 2013. The strategic framework, work programme and budget, annual work plans, programmes and projects are to be derived from the MTSIP results framework. Recent evaluations in UN-Habitat consistently indicate the need to address the weakness in monitoring, data collection and analysis for effective reporting on results. Strengthening of monitoring and evaluation system was prominent in the MTSIP Action Plan (November 2007) and a key area of institutional reform for Excellence in Management (Focus Area 6). To be able to monitor and report in a meaningful way on the progress made towards implementing the results framework, and as such, future work programmes and budgets, all baseline figures for indicators need to be collected. To institutionalize monitoring, evaluation and reporting both better systems and capacity need to be put in place. Such systems must take into account that delivery of the results cuts across Divisions.
Rationale
The strategic result of Focus Area 4 (FA4) is: Expanded access to environmentally sound basic urban infrastructure services with a special focus on the unserved and underserved populations. UN-Habitat aims to achieve this strategic result through four different operational modalities; namely:
i) Water and Sanitation Trust Fund (WSTF), a funding pool for donors to contribute towards Water and Sanitation Infrastructure Branch's (WSIB) country level activities mainly implemented in light of MOUs with the regional development banks, cooperation agreement (CAs) with a number of different implementing agencies. ii) Regional initiatives in the secondary urban centres around Lake Victoria and in the Asian Cities in the Mekong Region. iii) Earmarked contribution from private sector to WSIB. iv) Country level water sanitation and related infrastructure programmes implemented by the three regional offices of UN-Habitat and Regional Cooperation Technical Department (RCTD) of UN-Habitat.
With the global spread of the activities under FA4, managed by different divisions/sections, progress reports with a uniform understanding of progress, outputs and outcomes remains a challenge. FA4 has recently finalized its results framework; a first step to define outcome indicators of FA interventions applicable across the programmes (FA4) and to be reported upon, the results framework is attached as Annex I. The key performance indicators with corresponding established baseline and targets for the FA are summarized as following:
S/No. Performance Indicator Baseline Target (end 2013) 1 Number of people in target communities with access to environmentally sound basic urban infrastructure services 1 million (2009) 1.6 million 2 Percentage of institutional stakeholders reporting positive perception of UN-Habitat's contribution to expanded access for the poor to basic urban infrastructure services in selected communities To be established 80% 3 Number of countries progressively adopting relevant policies that aim to expand access to environmentally sound urban infrastructure and services 25 33 4 Number of institutions in target countries adopting institutional mechanisms that expand mechanisms that expand access to environmentally sound urban infrastructure and services 81 105 5 Percentage of service providers recovering at least operational and maintenance cost of services To be established 80% 6 Percentage of consumers of UN-Habitat partners service provider organizations reporting satisfaction with services provided To be established 90% 7 Percentage of consumers ranking basic urban infrastructure services in the first three of their priority needs To be established 90% 8 Percentage difference in the price of basic infrastructure services paid by the poor vis-à-vis the rest of consumers in selected communities To be established 0%
As a part of agency-wide processes for improvement in reporting of achievements (with empirical evidence), FA4 intends to establish baselines for all indicators and develop a customized M, E&R Framework. To this end a study is being planned.
The proposed study comprises of the following two distinct but interrelated components:
Component 1: A baseline survey for the established indicators (and others yet to be established), review and suggestion of harmonized and improved data collection methodology for the indicators with established baseline.
Component 2: Formulation of harmonized M, E&R Framework for FA4 of the UN-Habitat MTSIP, encompassing data collection, methodology (qualitative and quantitative), collation, analysis and reporting. This framework should operate in line with set principles and standards aimed at ensuring credibility, impartiality, transparency, and usefulness of monitoring, evaluation and reporting processes.
The suggested M, E&R framework serves the following objectives: (i) To promote accountability and learning in the work of UN-Habitat and its partners in the Watsan sector; (ii) To guide stakeholders in making strategic choices and decisions as to how best to support and work in improving the Watsan sector performance for the benefit of urban poor. (iii) To address the important aspects of harmonized mechanism of data collection, its collation, analysis and reporting at the country and regional level.
Objectives of the Consultancy
The consultancy has the following specific objectives:
a. To collect baseline data that will inform program managers responsible for implementation of decisions that are appropriate to the actual situation on the ground. b. To undertake the first measurement of outcome indicators as per the Indicators Performance Management Sheet (PMS), thus establishing the foundation for the programme M, E&R system (the assessed conditions as of the start of interventions). c. To develop M, E&R systems that must take into account that delivery of the results cuts across Divisions. d. To improve human resource capacity both at the country and regional level in data collection, collation, analysis and reporting.
Scope and Focus Baseline Study Establishing the baseline to measure and report on progress is a vital component of MTSIP framework. Therefore, the consultant shall develop a baseline component for the assessment of the current state on the implementation of MTSIP. These should include: i) Articulation of a standardized methodology/instrument for data collection; ii) Elaboration of processes for reconstructing baseline data. A common problem is that some baseline data for the programme were not collected prior to programme start-up. Options for reconstructing baseline data e.g. using secondary data, project administrative records, recall, and key informants as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy should be elaborated. M, E&R Framework The M, E&R system will need to build upon already existing data collection mechanisms. Therefore, the consultant shall compile a list of existing instruments which facilitate data collection at different levels of programme implementation with a view to in dentifying the potential role and utilization of each instrument in the MER framework for the enhancement of MTSIP. And thereafter recommend what a standardized MER framework to monitor MTSIP implementation at the regional, national and sectoral levels should include.
Methodology
The consultant shall employ the following methodologies:
Desk review: The consultant will initially undertake a desk review of relevant documents on MTSIP including six monthly MTSIP reports, organization result frameworks and current monitoring protocols within the programmes under FA4. There will also be a need to take into account the current agency-wide reporting mechanisms falling under the ambit of FA4. This specific emphasis needs to be on the project level operations of WSIB and ones undertaken at country level by RCTD and the Regional Offices.
Interviews: The consultant will visit project sites and undertake a rapid assessment of the activities being implemented and the processes involved. S/he will also hold structured interviews with relevant staff of the agency at the headquarter and out posted staff, including WSIB, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit, RCTD, Monitoring and Research Department (MRD) of UN-Habitat. Interviews will also target regional development banks, selected relevant Ministries in partner countries and previous implementing partners. For each site visited, 4 to 5 people will be selected for focused group discussions (FGD) – to review, inter alia, community level of satisfaction with the services provided (indicator 6).
Questionnaire administration: The consultants will develop and administer questionnaires to collect and/or verify baseline data for qualitative indicators, also targeting institutional stakeholders, specifically the regional development banks, selected relevant Ministries in partner countries, present and previous implementing partners (Indicator 2 table above). This approach also needs to be applied in the field coupled with FGDs in collecting baseline information from the target community on (Indicator 6).
Reviewing situational analysis: as a starting point towards establishing baseline information for indicator 7, the consultant will review a number of situational analysis carried out by the agency from current and previous projects. This will include objective assessment of the quality of information included in these reports to assist in extracting the ranking of basic infrastructure. In case the project was developed based on secondary data, the consultant will need to review the sources and arrive at a statistically robust inference (baseline) for the indicator.
Sampling: to be done from the list of institutional stakeholders, project sites, implementing partners and service providers, provided by UN-Habitat. The sampling methodology needs to minimize the selection biases through use of statistically robust technique(s).
Results and Deliverables
a) Inception report - An inception report should be prepared by the consultant before going into the full fledged study. It should detail the consultant's understanding of the assignment - its purpose and why it is being undertaken, showing how each evaluation question will be answered by way of: proposed methods; proposed sources of data; and data collection procedures.
The inception report should include a proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables, including proposed field visits, and should provide WSIB and the consultant with an opportunity to verify that they share the same understanding about the study and clarify any misunderstanding at the outset.
b) Draft Report - that would comprise of i) Baseline results ii) Data collection methodology (to be translated into field manual as part of the consultancy assignment.) iii) Output and outcome indicators for the normative work that the agency undertakes under the ambit of FA4 and other relevant quantitative indicators iv) Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (M, E&R) Framework focusing on FA4, consisting of concise, clear and appropriate tools and techniques and, (v) a training manual.
c) Final Report – WSIB and key stakeholders in the evaluation should review the draft evaluation report to ensure that the evaluation meets the required quality criteria. Based on comments on the draft report received, the consultant shall prepare five copies of the final assignment report for submission as hard copies as well as in electronic format.
d) Training/orientation Manual: will be developed in preparation of enhancing capacity for management of M, E&R Framework. The manual will articulate inter alia:
i) The components of the ME&R framework such as the type of data needed, their sources, frequency of collection etc; ii) Examples of performance indicators and measurement strategies for a range of factors (e.g. health, education etc) that is relevant to the FA4 iii) Quantitative, qualitative and mixed-method data collection analysis approaches to impact evaluation;
e) Training Sessions - to selected HQ audience in Nairobi (participants TBD), field staff at the regional level (Asia, Africa and Latin America) where appropriate and presentation to the Committee of Permanent Representatives (CPR) at Nairobi (date TBD)
Indicative Activities and Reporting Schedule
The study is envisaged to take a total of 3.5 months spread over 5 months, detailed as follows: desk review (& preparation of the inception report (7 days), preparation & administration of study tools (10 days), , field visits, training and travelling (25 days) compilation of baseline (10 days), development of MER framework (10 days) and polishing of final documents (10 days).
The assignment will commence as soon as possible and the consultant will be contracted for three and a half months spread over a period of five months. Accordingly, the consultant will present/deliver to WSIB: (i) Inception report after one month (ii) Draft reports after three and a half months (iii) Final reports one week before end of assignment
During the course of the study, the consultant is to report to the Chief WSIB I (as the oversight officer) or his appointed representative. The consultant would be provided all the necessary support through the office of Chief WSIB I in order to ensure timely and quality outputs.
Specifically, the consultant will receive the following feedback from WSIB: (i) On inception report - one week after submission (ii) On Draft reports – two weeks after submission
Inputs from WSIB
WSIB shall provide the consultant with: i) All programme (& other relevant) documents/reports ii) Logistics on field visits iii) Feedback on the workplan, and draft reports/documents submitted iv) Funds based on approved UN regulations & rules and established procedures
Budget and Schedule of Payment
While professional fees for the service rendered will be paid on agreed terms, all other expenses are to be included in the financial proposal, such as contracting of local baseline surveyors.
The consultant will receive a payment of 40% upon submission of 1st draft report. Final payment of 60% will be made upon satisfactory completion of work. The fee is payable under the individual SSAs of the consultant and is exclusive of all expenses such as travel, accommodation and incidental expenses. Ticket and DSA will be paid separately. Standard UN travel rules will apply for all travels.
The consultant must always produce satisfactory supporting documentation for expenses incurred during the assignment, including receipts, sub-contracting documents, remittance advices inter alia.
In case, the consultant cannot provide the products in accordance with the TORs, the timeframe agreed, or his products are substandard, the payment to the consultant could be withheld, until such a time the products are modified to meet UN-Habitat's standard. In case the consultant fails to submit a satisfactory final product to UN-Habitat, the product prepared by the consultant may not constitute the evaluation report.
Education
Advanced university degree (Masters's degree or equivalent) in economics, development studies or equivalent.
Work Experience
- A minimum of seven years relevant work experience in the development sector, preferably with the United Nations and/or international NGOs;
- Experience in working on Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) issues;
- Experience in developing and conducting training programs with building of institutional M&E capacity;
- Familiarity with developing indicators and data collection methodologies (standards and principles);
- Familiarity with results-based management concepts and the logical framework approach;
- Experience in questionnaire development, its management and analysis;
- Knowledge of communication strategies and techniques;
Language English and French are the working languages of the United Nations. For this assignment, excellent proven drafting skills in English are required. Proficiency in French is an advantage.
All applications should be submitted to: Mr Lars Stordal UN-HABITAT, P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi 00100, Kenya E-mail: lars.stordal@unhabitat.org
Interested applicants should send (e-mail preferred): - CV(please use the United Nations standard personal history form available via http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?typeid=24&catid=435&id=3867) - Proof of relevant work experience - Financial proposal (e.g. consultation fees)
Deadline for applications: 22 August 2011Important Note: Please be advised that since April 15 2010, applicants for consultancy must be part of the UN-HABITAT consultants' database (e-roster) in order for their application to be considered. You can reach the consultants Web site through the following link: http://e-roster.unhabitat.org/
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